Short Stories

This is for all of the short stories that I have written.  Hope you like them!

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This is one I did for writing class.  If you like Tangled the movie (especially if you're a big fan of it), you should read this one!  Enjoy!  :)

 

Tangled, the Sequel

By Ammie A. Athena

You've probably heard the story of how Eugene and I got together in the movie, Tangled. We made that movie ourselves and it's gotten pretty popular. Those adventures were pretty amazing and life-changing. However, they seemed like nothing compared to what's been happening since Tangled was introduced. You heard us talking at the end of that movie that we'd gotten married but you never heard what happened after that. (And by the way, Eugene still calls me Blondie sometimes.)

When we had our first child, I thought to myself, “I let myself believe my adventures with 'Flynn Rider' were crazy and amazing!” Having a baby was painful! It happened to be a quite large baby, too - weighing in at ten pounds, eleven ounces and measuring twenty four inches long! I was completely overwhelmed! She had beautiful, blonde hair, like mine before it was cut. We named her Rapunzel Lynn Fitzherbert. Of course, her first name, Rapunzel, is after me. Her middle name, Lynn, is a different version of Flynn. We just took off the F. As you know, her last name comes from me being married to Eugene.

There's an adventure for you. But the REAL adventures still hadn't begun.

We decided that we wanted to have as many children as possible. That pretty much meant having kids one after the other until I couldn't anymore.

When I finally got used to taking care of Rapunzel, the next one came along. A baby boy named Flynn Eugene Fitzherbert was born. That's when it really started to get crazy. On top of caring for a new baby, Rapunzel was learning how to walk and getting into everything! Since I’m a queen, Eugene doesn't have to work for a living. He helped me a lot but it was still crazy.

I pretty much had a baby every year after that. In the end, we had twenty kids, all with beautiful, handsome, blonde hair like mine had been. Before we get to that, let me just tell you the names of a few more of us and then we'll get to the adventures I was talking about.

After Flynn came Lota Rose. Beautiful name, don't you think? It matched her beautiful face.

And the last Fitzherbert I'll mention is Donagher Flynnagin.

The adventure I am going to tell you about is when we discovered something shocking about Rapunzel. After Eugene cut my hair, I thought all of those magical powers were over - gone and done away with. I was wrong.

One day I had Rapunzel with me in my room in the palace. Pascal was sitting on my shoulder as usual, watching us. We were sitting on my bed reading a book together. The other children: Flynn, Lota, and Donagher, were taking naps and I was trying to get her to sleep by reading her books. That wasn't helping. She wanted to act out every scene that happened. It just got her all piped up. (Eugene and I wrote a few child books to read to them so we could remember all that had happened and tell our story accurately.) Then I thought of trying to teach her some songs. The first one that popped into my head was the song that made my hair glow. As you know, the song doesn't work for me anymore because my hair was cut. It has always been something I wanted to remember for the rest of my life. It played a huge part in the adventures that Eugene and I had. I realized that, though it was in the books we wrote, we'd never actually sung it; we'd just read it. I decided to teach her that one.

I told Rapunzel to come sit down on the floor in front of me. She was in the middle of acting out the scene where I’m singing my morning song in the movie and doing my chores but she stopped to come over and sit down. “Yes, Mommy?” she said, sitting cross-legged obediently in front of me and staring at me with her beautiful green eyes.

Rapunzel looked a lot like me. She looked up at me with those captivating green eyes that she'd gotten from my side of the family and inquired in that adorable little voice, “What is it, Mommy?”

“I'm going to teach you a song!” I said, smiling.

She gasped and leaned forward in anticipation, obviously excited. Pascal settled down on my shoulder in a comfy position to watch and listen.

“It goes like this,” I continued, and started to sing it. “Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine.....” I stopped and looked at her again. I gasped and jumped back as I realized her hair was glowing. “Rapunzel! Your hair! Look!!”

She looked at her hair with a very anxious face and gasped, too, her eyes widening. Pascal hopped out of the way as she jumped up to me and buried her face in my shoulder, hiding from her hair. “Mommy! What's going on?”

Then she gasped again and, looking over my shoulder, pointed at the bed behind me where Flynn, Lota, and Donagher were sleeping. Pascal turned around and made a frightened squeaky sound. I turned around and gave a short scream.

“Eugene!” I called. “Eugene! Come here!”

He was in another room and came dashing in. “What's going on?” He stopped and, jumping back, made kind of a yelping noise. “What.....HAPPENED?!”

I sat there for a second and watched the glow fade from their blonde hair. Then I looked back at Eugene and stammered, “I-I don't know! I just started singing the song that made my magic hair glow and then Rapunzel's hair started to glow. After that she jumped up and saw Flynn, Lota, and Donagher's hair glowing, too.”

Pascal scurried under the bed to hide.

Eugene stared at me for a second. He started trying to talk, stuttering a lot. “But I... I thought... How did you?... How is that possible?!!”

I looked into his eyes for a moment, a panicky thought echoing through my head. “What if someone tries to steal their power like Mother Gothel did?” I said that out loud and Eugene stared back at me, terrified.

I shook my head. “What should we do? I know it's not right to hide their gifts from the world and it's especially not right to do what Mother Gothel did with me. That was horrible. Should we just not tell anyone? Never sing the song? Never use their gift? Should we cut their hair?”

Eugene walked over and slumped on the bed next to me. Then, he looked at my eyes. Our noses were almost touching. “I think we should protect them. We can sing the song and let them learn it but we should tell them never to sing the song to anyone else...ever. We don't have to keep them away from the world but we need to keep their gift away from it. The children will know of their gift. We won't cut their hair. We can just put it up all the time. The only people who can know about this are your parents and this family.”

I nodded, agreeing, and looked at Rapunzel. I started talking in a slightly shaky voice, “Ok, Rapunzel, let's learn that song now.”

Eugene watched as I began again, listening to the song after seven long years of not hearing it. “Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the Fate's design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine.....” Before singing the rest, I paused, recounting the memories. Then I finished. “What once was mine.” I watched the glow fade from her hair. Pascal scurried back up to my shoulder for comfort and watched, too.

Rapunzel was listening intently, looking at her hair for a moment as the glow faded and then looking back up at me. Her eyes were opened wide like in the scene of the movie where she'd played me staring out the window from my tower at the lanterns. She looked at my eyes and said, “That's so pretty, Mommy. How does it start, again?”

The rest of the day we practiced that song. The rest of the children learned it, too.

* * * * *

The next adventure happened many years later, when Rapunzel was seventeen.

Hey there, I’m Rapunzel, Rapunzel's daughter. Gee, that's confusing. Well, I'll just call myself Rapunzel the second. I'll tell my part of the story and my mom will finish.

I was walking down the street in the part of the town where my mother had danced with everyone in the movie. My hair was up in a bun with a few loose strands left flying behind me, glowing. Since it was an early Sunday morning, there happened to be no one around. I was singing the healing song to myself. I loved singing it. It was truly beautiful.

I was walking to the house of my best friend. We had planned to go on a picnic, today. The tower where my mother grew up was a wonderful place and we decided to go there. It was a long journey but we knew we would have fun. We would travel today and tomorrow and we would be there the morning after. I was so excited! I hadn't been there since I was fifteen, two years ago, and I couldn't wait!

When I got to my best friend Cristil's house, I stopped singing and knocked on the door as the glow left my hair. She answered and told me to wait a moment while she gathered the rest of her things. I sat in front of the door to wait for her. When she came back out, she had a basket, a satchel (like my father carried), and her pet parakeet, Pastel. When I first met him, I thought it was hilarious that his name sounded so much like Pascal. The companionship he provides is similar, too. He's darling and he's a lot like him.

“Alright, Cristil. You ready to go?” I asked as I stood up and brushed the dust off of my dress.

“Ready as ever!” she said with a bounce. Pastel bobbed his adorable bird head.

I nodded and off we went. Traveling together was so fun and we always got to know each other better in the process.

About mid-day, we stopped at a stream for a drink. I knew this stream well. It was the stream that led to my mother's tower. We would follow it all the way there from here.

We traveled on until night when we made a fire and slept. Pastel perched in a tree branch he found and fell asleep. The next morning we took quick baths in the stream and then went on. I couldn't wait to get there! I quickened the pace.

“Come on, Cristil! I want to try and make it before sundown!” I turned and looked over my shoulder to see if she was coming and she was.

“Wait up! I know you want to get there sooner but I’m not as fast as you!”

Right as Cristil said that she tripped. I gasped as she fell, screaming, onto the rocky bed of the stream below us. Her head hit the sharp rocks and she landed awkwardly on her side. I heard a crunch and winced but quickly recovered and ran down to help her. She rolled over onto her back and groaned, gasping at the same time. “Ah! Ow! I-I can't-,” gasp, “breathe!” Pastel fluttered above her for a second, tweeting in dismay, and then landed on the ground next to her to anxiously nuzzle her cheek.

I quickly looked her over and realized that one of her ribs had broken and had punctured her left lung. To make it worse, her left arm was broken, from what I could feel, in quite a few places. Her head was bleeding a lot and she was complaining that her hip hurt.

I groaned inwardly. This was the worst situation that we could possibly be in right now. Cristil was injured and there was no one around to help. She was going to die. I panicked. Should I use my ability? Mother told me never to sing the song around anyone except the people who lived in the palace. However, right now, I needed it to help her.

“Cristil?” I began, deciding that I had to sing the song to save her life. “Right now, can you promise me something?”

She looked up at me with her piercing blue eyes and said, “O-of course. Anything.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and then opened them again and said, “Cristil, do you promise, sincerely promise, that you will never, ever tell anyone what I’m about to do?”

Her eyes widened slightly and she nodded, letting out a gasping, “I promise.” Pastel looked up at me with those little beady eyes of his and nodded too.

I nodded slowly back to her and then started to sing. “Flower, gleam and glow.”

When Cristil saw my hair start to glow her eyes widened even more and she took in an even deeper breath.

I continued. “Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the Fate's design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine. What once was mine.”

She gasped as she was healed and she realized the abilities my hair held. She sat up and looked me in the eyes with an amazed but happy expression. “Rapunzel.....,” she said. “That's incredible! How did you do that?” Pastel looked at me like I was crazy and marveled at my hair as it lost its glow.

I sighed and leaned back in a kneeling position. “You know what happened with my mother and her hair. When my father cut her hair they thought that the power of it was gone forever but they were wrong. When my mother had me, she passed on the gift of the magic flower to me. When I was seven years old she taught me the song. She told me never to sing it to anyone else, ever, but when you were hurt just now I knew I had to save you. Please don't tell anyone!”

She looked at me with a concerned expression. “I won't tell anyone, Rapunzel, but why do you want to hide your gift? You could save people all over! You could help.....the world!”

I looked up into her face and realized that what she said was true. “You're right, Cristil. I can use my gift for good. I know we were going to go to the tower but now I want to go home and tell my mother about what you said. Do you mind?” I asked as I helped her up.

She shook her head, smiling. “Not at all.”

* * * * *

When I told my parents what I thought, my mother asked me, “Are you sure? You want to share your gift with the world? You realize this will affect your siblings as well, don't you? We need to talk with them.”

When we gathered them all together they agreed with me.

We went on to share our gifts with the world. I knew that this was much better and that it was what we were meant to do. We lived long, happy lives together and I ruled in the place of my mother as a happy queen over a happy people.

My mother would like to speak now.

Thank you, Rapunzel. When Eugene and I listened to her talking about sharing her gift we were scared. We didn't want someone to take her for themselves. Now we know that this was the right thing to do. And yes, Rapunzel did make a wonderful queen. We all lived happily ever after.

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I wrote this one for a 24-hour short story contest for my writing class.  I would have gotten probably 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place (out of fourteen) if I hadn't turned it in late.  It's based a little bit on the Greek Gods and Goddesses.  I hope you like it!



Rhea's Destiny

By Ammie A. Athena

Rhea listened to the mocking bird caw and watched a hummingbird drink nectar from a flower. She walked up to it and put two fingers under its feet to help it rest for a moment. She had heard stories from some of the  elders in her village that had been to the “United States of America”, wherever that was, that people there couldn't just go up to a hummingbird and do just what she was doing with her fingers. The elders said that the people there would hurt them, so all of the birds were scared when people came up. They just hovered away. Rhea patted the bird gently on the head and lifted her fingers swiftly but gracefully into the air to help it lift off. Then she kept exploring.

She had left her village for a while to explore their new hunting grounds. She had put on her favorite “exploring shirt”, a turtle-green one with a leaf on it, and her jeans that had little green swirls on the bottom. She'd taken her hair out from the loops that they had been in before, brushed it, and put it back up in one big braid. Then she'd told her mother what she was doing, and left. Now she was having the time of her life, alone in the forest.

She turned a corner in the trail she was following and it suddenly ended. She stopped. In front of her was a huge field, or a clearing, in the middle of the forest! The only thing on the ground here was leaves. She started to wander into the clearing and look around. Thoughts were going through her head: I could build a fort here, and play in it with all of my friends! We could have a club! This place is wonderful! She turned in slow circles, taking it all in. Then she froze. In front of her was a white lion. It was a magnificent animal with a flowing mane, and it's fur swished as it walked majestically forward. It got up to her and she felt it. The soft mane fur of the lion. He was albino.

“H-hello,” she said nervously, slowly reaching out to touch it. “I'm Rhea.” She knew it was a male lion, because it had a mane and females didn't. “I wonder who you are.....” She thought about her power. She could talk to animals. Maybe this lion would talk back to her.

He kept coming up to Rhea and turned so that he was facing the same direction as her, although she was looking down at him all the time. He straitened up, his head as high as her waist, to look into the trees opposite them. Rhea looked too, but saw nothing, and looked back down to him.

He looked up at her with huge green eyes and said, “My name is Jupiter. I have a message. Will you listen?”

She gasped when he started talking, and looked at him in surprise. “O-ok, I guess,” She stammered.

“Alright,” he started, looking back into her eyes. “Because you can speak to me I have been chosen, over the other leaders, to give you this message. You will be a great hero. You will and you must come with me on a great quest to find your destiny. Your destiny will be filled with many challenges, much pain, and much sorrow, but you will be greatly rewarded in the end.”

Rhea couldn't say anything. She was stunned. He was chosen to give me the message? Great hero? Great quest to find my destiny? Challenges? Greatly rewarded? What is all this about? She tucked her brown hair behind her ears, crouched down so that she was facing Jupiter, and asked, “What does it all mean?”

He sighed in exasperation, looking back into her eyes. “You have to leave with me to go on a great journey to find your destiny. You will go through a lot of trials and hardships, but it will be worth it. Will you go?”

She stood back up and thought while she looked at the ground in front of her. If she left, what would her family think? And who chose him over what leaders to give her this message? What was she getting herself into? She had barely met this animal, he was a lion, a dangerous predator that could easily kill her, and she didn't know anything about him! Maybe she should ask him a few more questions.

First, “What is this all about? Is there a secret agency or something? What leaders?” She asked him while he looked at her with green, somehow sympathetic eyes. Why were they sympathetic? Because she was confused? She wished he would answer her question (or questions).

He sighed. “Yes. There is an organization in the sky. It is called HHR. Helping the Human Race. There are leaders of this organization that we call parents. I am one of them. They chose me to give you this message because you seem to have a better connection with animals than with other people. You are a chosen one Rhea. You will help others, you will help the world. You must come with me to fulfill this mission. Will you? I promise you will learn more, and all, of what I know.”

Rhea hesitated. “I don't know......” What should I do? Should I tell him I'll think about it? Yeah, I think that's a good idea. “I'll have to think about it. Will you meet me back here tomorrow?”

He considered. “Yes, I think that would be alright. Tomorrow at sunset.”

He walked away. Rhea stood for a minute, thinking. She watched him. He was so beautiful. As he disappeared, she thought about what she should do. He'd said that she would and must go on this.....quest. That probably meant it was pretty important. Right then and there, she decided. I'll go.

* * * * *

She and Jupiter traveled the country, earning extra money, even though they didn't need any unless they were going to sail to another country or something, because they could catch their own food. They helped people by giving them some of their extra “savings” as they called it, and they gave them food, and every once in a while, if someone was sick, Jupiter would do all he could to heal them with his powers and Rhea would do the rest of the healing and taking care of them until they were well. They spent months traveling like this, and soon they were known as heroes.

Then a tragedy struck. They lost someone. It had been the mother of a little boy. She had been deathly ill. With lung cancer. Rhea and Jupiter - Jupiter having given some of his magical powers to Rhea so that she could help heal even more – had been trying their best to heal her. They had tried with all of the care and magic that they could, but the woman hadn't made it. The boy, who was nine, had cried for days, along with  Rhea, who absolutely couldn't believe it. Then she remembered the message that she had been given months before: There will be many trials and hardships, but you will be greatly rewarded in the end. That was what helped her get through the death of this boy's mother. When he had recovered somewhat, she got him to talk about some family that he had in the north. She arranged for him to be sent there, as he didn't have a father. She knew that she was sent on this mission especially to help this boy. She was confident again. They kept traveling from place to place helping people, and doing what was in the prophecy.

Rhea was sitting on a log, stoking the fire in the pit, when a thought occurred to her. About her destiny. What was it? She had always wondered that, but now she thought she knew. Her destiny was to help. To help others, to help the needy and sick, and to help them do what they needed to do. She went to Jupiter and she told him what she thought.

He replied, “Yes. You have found your destiny. I will call upon the parents to show them what you have learned.” He turned his face so that he was staring at the air. Or just staring nowhere. Then he spoke. “Kronus, Leader and God of Time; Gaia, Leader, Protector and Goddess of the Earth; Hemera, Leader, and Goddess of the Sun; and Nyx, Leader, Protector, and Goddess of Night. I call upon you to look over this young Leader; Rhea, Leader and Goddess of the Moon.”

Rhea was shocked to hear this. She was the Goddess of the Moon?!? She suddenly felt a jolt of power explode inside of her like something was being released, and there was a flash of white light in front of her. She stared at the four Gods in front of her. Kronus first, then Hemera, Nyx and..... “Mom?” She stared at Gaia with tears in her eyes. They ran to each other and embraced. She was crying with happiness as she asked over her mother's shoulder, “Why didn't you tell me?”

They stopped hugging just enough to see each other's face but they were still holding each other's arms. “It was too dangerous,” Gaia sobbed. “I might have been destroyed. And I didn't want you to grow up without a mother.” She looked down at her feet and they let go of each other. Then she looked back into Rhea's beautiful blue eyes and stroked her braided hair. “But now you know,” she said. “And I always knew that you would find your destiny someday, just like in the message Jupiter gave you. You have the power of the Moon in your hands, which can do marvelous things such as heal, help you to use magic, the magic that Jupiter taught you, and talk to living things like animals, and you didn't even know it until now. You can be with me forever.”

They grabbed each other again and stayed that way until Jupiter spoke. “I think we have some more business to attend to.....”

There was another flash of light and the woman that Rhea hadn't been able to save from death appeared in front of her. Minerva.

“What?” Now Rhea was a little confused. Why was she here?

“Hello Rhea,” she said in a majestic voice, walking forward. “I see that I have a little explaining to do,” she said, noticing Rhea's confused face. “You were not able to heal me because my power was so strong, and you were not yet a full Goddess because you did not fully know of your power. But I was not able to heal myself because that is not possible for a God or Goddess to do. I am glad to be able to see you now so that I can tell you that your effort was put to good use, and not wasted. The power with which you attempted to heal me, stayed inside of me, and gave me even more wisdom than you can ever know. As I am the Goddess of Wisdom, you have helped me to gain more of that so that I can better care for the world. I also want to express my gratitude to you for guiding my son through the trial of losing me. Thank you.”

Rhea had tears in her eyes again as she hugged Minerva and thanked her for coming to tell her this. There was once again a bright flash, and Minerva vanished.

“Thank you everyone,” Rhea said with extreme gratitude. “I cannot believe all of this. I never would have guessed that I would become a Goddess. I'd hardly heard of Gods and Goddesses until now. I, Rhea, Goddess of the Moon, will protect the human race and be loyal to HHR for as long as I live. And I will never, in my wildest dreams, betray you.”

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This next one is one I wrote of my own will, just because I wanted to.  Tell me what you think of it.



Belix's Adventure

By Ammie A. Athena

Belix was in the middle of a swim to Meezin's cave. As he swam, he admired the beautiful water plants, and his reflection in the glass; his limit to exploration. You see, he lived in a fish tank, or the more formal term, an aquarium. Most of the time he had lots of fun playing in the plants, or blubbing to his neighbors but other times it just plain got boring and he wished he could explore beyond this cove. He knew every grain of sand personally, as well as every leaf and stem on every plant. It was fun to watch the plants get bigger, progress, and grow, but he wanted more to explore. He wanted to live in the lake back where he came from, to be able to have no limit to his grounds. “Ahh, here we are,” he said as he paddled into “Meezin Territory”. Meezin was a red wag swordtail, so he was much bigger (and in Belix's opinion much prettier) than Belix, who was a bumblebee platy. Belix swam up the entrance of Meezin's cave and tapped. Meezin swam up to him.

“Oh, hi Belix!” Meezin said upon seeing him. “What brings you here today?”

Right when he said this, all of his fry (which are fish babies) swam out of the cave. They stopped in front of him and one of them whispered to the others, “One, two, three!” Then they all said at once, “We're going out  to play because Mom said to. Bye!” They all grinned (or made a fish happy face) and swam off.

“Well that was a surprise,” Belix commented. He turned around to watch the fry swim off.

“Yeah, you know kids. They bring something new every day. So what brings you here?”

Belix sighed. “Boredom. I wish I could go somewhere where I didn't know every plant down to it's roots. Not that I don't like being here, it just gets so boring! I want to explore! I wish there was someone I could pair with, like you and Star. I want to raise my own fry more than anything now, and maybe that will help me to fill my emptiness......” He trailed off.

“You know what you need Belix? You need to cheer up! Maybe the Catcher (which was the person who brought fish in to the tank, took them out and fed them) will bring in another fish for you to pair with. Remember, I was stuck in here for a long time before she brought someone for me.”

Belix sighed. “Maybe. I still wish I could go out and explore a lake of some kind. I just don't feel free.” He clamped his fins together and sagged. Then he swam off, leaving Meezin to wonder exactly why he was so sad.

Belix wandered around the tank for months, feeling disappointed that the Catcher still hadn't brought him a mate or caught him in a net to take him somewhere else. He played with Meezin's fry sometimes, but other than that, he was almost always sad.

One day, a net went into the tank. It was the Catcher!

Oh, well, Belix thought. She's just come for another fish. I guess I'll never get out of here. But then the net started to come towards him! “Aahh!” He swam away from it. It was scary. He went as fast as he could go, but eventually it caught him.

Belix sat stunned. “Wait a minute,” he said to himself. “This means a new adventure!” He braced himself for the open air that all fish said happened to them when they were caught in a net. Then, it happened. The catcher put him in a bag! “Hurray!!” he shouted, smiling to himself. He waved a fin at the other fish and turned around to see where the Catcher was taking him. He was being carried outdoors! The Catcher stepped onto something that looked like millions of little plants starting to grow that could be out of the water, and towards something big, round, and silver in the ground. The Catcher set him in the giant silver thing (which Belix now knew was water) and walked away.

He observed the life here, under the water. It was amazing! There were tons of fish just like him, and other ones, too! He looked mostly at the ones like him. Then he saw her. The most beautiful platy he had ever seen! She looked just like him, only she was bigger, and she had more black, making her even prettier.

Just then, the Catcher took him out of the bag. He swam straight over to her after getting through the current of water being poured behind him. “H-hi,” he said shyly. “I-I'm Belix.”

“Hey there!” she replied. “My name's Veronica. Where did you come from?”

“I-I came from an aquarium. It's not far away.”

She looked at him affectionately. “Well, then you must be pretty shocked right now. Will you come to my territory to wait for the Catcher to feed us?”

“S-sure,” he accepted. He could not drag his eyes away from her. He just kept watching her and watching her. They got to Veronica's territory and sat still across from each other, just staring.

Veronica broke the silence. “Well, then! We ought to get to know each other!”

And that's how it ends.

Veronica and Belix eventually had thousands of fry (fish can have a lot of babies at once) and they lived happily together for the rest of their lives.

* * * * *

This is the very first short story I ever wrote.  I did it for writing class.  It's also the story that I have based Asteria and Vulcan and Keisha and Reena off of.

Mercury and Venus

By Ammie A. Athena

“You know we can't be together if we stay in our tribes,” warned a beautiful German Shepherd. She lowered her head to look through trembling bushes and pricked her ears for signs of intruders through the wind that rattled the branches of the trees in their hiding place. They had found and chosen this place for their hideout. It had been a few miles from their tribes' villages and it was full of bushes and shrubs to cover their voices most of the way. Also, there had been a perfectly sized hill to dig a deep cave in. The cave was just their size. They needed a cave to stay hidden, and it was necessary for the possibility that she might have to stay here to have her puppies.

“I know, Venus, I know. If our puppies are to lead good lives, and not be persecuted by our tribes, then we need to separate. We can't stay in our tribes and still be happy leading good lives.” A handsome Golden Retriever told this to his “secret mate”, as he too, watched for intruders outside of the cave they had dug, in this secret part of the forest.

He remembered when they had first met: they had been exploring in the forest that was in between their tribes’ villages.

Sniff, sniff. Mercury gasped. He tried to stay hidden in the bushes. Oh no! he thought. If the master finds out that I was with a dog from a different tribe or breed, he'll have me clean out the dens for months! Ahh! Stay hidden, stay hidden, stay hidden.....

“Hello!”

Mercury looked up. What he saw made his eyes widen in wonder and admiration. He rose up to standing, instead of a crouch, and met the brown eyes of a wondrously beautiful German Shepherd.

“What's your name?”

He jumped back in surprise. He had been so caught up in admiring her softly groomed hair, that, strangely enough, he had forgotten she was there.

He stammered a little and then said, in a scared, shy, squeaky voice, “Mercury.”

“Oh! Mine’s Venus!”

And this was how they met.

They had always loved each other from the start. From the time they first saw each other, they had found ways to meet secretly, and had eventually found this place to dig their cave, and talk about the puppies that they had now found out were going to be born.

“OK Mercury, but where do we go?”

She knew her mate had been daydreaming and snapped him back to the present.

“Come in the cave,” he replied, snapping back to the future, as Venus had intended, and walked in with her in tow.

“Venus, you go east, and I'll go west. Our tribes must never see us again.”

Venus looked at him with remorse, but understood.

She knew that if they stayed in their tribes their puppies would eventually die of grief and pain. She knew what their tribes would do. If two dogs, from different tribes, met and fell in love and had puppies, the two tribes would hate each other and their puppies. They would try to bully the puppies for revenge, and eventually kill them.

“OK. I'll go. But if anything happens to you, you must find a way to send me a message, or I will live in grief for the rest of my days.”

* * * * *

And they departed to travel through the forests and the plains.

Venus, in sorrow, and pain from the weight of her puppies, would turn right to make her den for the night. Mercury, in loneliness and grief from losing his one true love, would turn left, and because of this they were going in one wide circle, to meet in the middle on the other side.

They rejoiced exceedingly at meeting each other so unexpectedly, tumbling over each other in such great happiness, licking each others' faces almost to pieces, and sitting in absolute joy to watch the stars.

They vowed to stay in this forest, far from their tribes, where they had been reunited, to form a new tribe. In honor of the founders they called this tribe Mercurus, to show that they were bound together, and would never separate, for as long as they lived.

The Mercuri remembered their pain when they could not be together because of the laws of their tribes, and made a new law. The new law was that any tribe member who desired could have love outside their tribes.

And so they lived, in peace and happiness, to enjoy the freedom of their choice.

~Amory